Designing Transportation Projects for People and Places

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Tools for Determining Community Context An
Introduction to the Place Audit
Cynthia Nikitin Vice President, PPS
Designing Transportation Projects for People and
Places July 24 -25, 2008
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Research Outreach
Education Training
Planning Design

• PPS has completed over 1000 place-based projects
  since 1975, consisting of
• Community Visioning
• Conceptual Designs
• User/Needs Analysis
• Management Programs
• Master Planning
• Urban Design

• PPS trains over 20,000 people annually. We offer
• Place Game workshops
• Context Sensitive Solutions training
• Public Markets as Economic Development
• How to Turn a Place Around seminars
• Conferences

• Our websites receive more than 30,000 page views
  per day
• We have produced 18 publications 6 videos
• We maintain a slide library of 500,000 images of
  public spaces

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William H. (Holly) Whyte
The Organization Man,1956 The Exploding
Metropolis, 1958 The Last Landscape, 1968 Plan
for the City of New York, 1969 The Social Life of
Small Urban Spaces, 1980 City Rediscovering the
Center, 1988
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What If We Built Our
Streets as Places?
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When you design your streets around cars and
trafficyou get cars and traffic.
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The erosion of cities by
automobiles proceeds as a
kind of nibbling. Small nibbles at first but
eventually hefty bites. A street is widened here,
another is straightened there, a wide avenue is
converted to one way flow and more land goes into
parking. No one step in this process is in itself
crucial but cumulatively the effect is enormous.
- Jane Jacobs, 1954
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A study of three generations of nine year olds
found that by 1990, the radius around the home in
which children were allowed to play, had sunk to
a ninth of what it had been in 1970. Richard
Louv
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When you design your streets around people and
places you get people and places
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Qualities of Great Streets

• Attractions Destinations
• Identity Image
• Active Edge Uses
• Amenities
• Management Central to the Solution
• Seasonal Strategy
• Diverse User Groups
• Traffic, Transit the Pedestrian
• Blending of Uses and Modes
• Protects Neighborhoods

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Attractions Destinations

• Curiosity, chaos, choices, with special places,
  rest spots, - the art of the path.

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Attractions Destinations

• Clustered activity points of interest.
• 10 Destinations including food and markets,
  local retail, art, play, education,
  health/recreation.

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Identity Image

• Showcases local assets
• Businesses, pedestrians, drivers, change their
  behavior in response to the design of the street
  and sense of place.

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Active Edge Uses

• Active building bases

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Active Edge Uses

• Active year around uses
• Connections from both sides of street

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Amenities

• Public and private seating options
• Triangulation to support use clusters of street
  amenities

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Management - Central to the Solution

• Programming daily activity generators/cultural,
  civic and seasonal celebrations

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Seasonal Strategies
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Draws diverse user groups

• No one group or use dominates

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Traffic, Transit the Pedestrian

• Walkable Places to go
• Range of transportation options

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Traffic, Transit the Pedestrian

• Mode Neutral/Modal equality
• Shared Use Streets/Complete Streets

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Flexibility blending uses modes

• Ground floors and retail that blur public and
  private space

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Protects neighborhoods

• Good transitions to local communities
• Neighborhood street character

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How to Evaluate a Street as a Place?
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What Makes a Great Street?
Key Attributes
Intangibles
Measurements
business ownership
street life
property values
evening use
land-use patterns
volunteerism
retail sales
Fun Active Vital
Welcoming
Cooperative Neighborly
Special Real
sociability
uses activities
PLACE
access linkages
comfort image
Connected
Safe
Walkable Convenient
Accessible
Charm Clean Attractive
Historic
crime stats
sanitation rating
transit usage
building conditions
pedestrian activity
environmental data
parking usage patterns
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Access Linkages

• Signs of problems automobiles dominate,
  poorly-marked crosswalks, poor signage, few
  pedestrians or bicycles.

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Access Linkages

• Signs of success for a street or road
  connected, continuous, legible, walkable,
  accessible.

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Uses Activities

• Signs of problems empty spaces,  underutilized
  buildings, security problems, one-dimensional.

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Uses Activities

• Signs of success for a street or road good
  place for business, active - lots of people
  walking, opportunities for active recreation

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Comfort Image

• Signs of problems unattractive, poor
  environmental quality, poorly maintained, unsafe.

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Comfort Image

• Signs of success for a street or road
  attractive, fits its surroundings, historic,
  feels safe.

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Sociability

• Signs of problems empty spaces, isolation

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Sociability

• Signs of success neighborliness, opportunities
  to gather, diverse population.

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If we can develop and design streets so that they
are wonderful, fulfilling places to
becommunity-building places, attractive for all
peoplethen we will have successfully designed
about one-third of the city directly and will
have had an immense impact on the rest
ALAN JACOBS
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Street Audit Evaluation Process

• Break into teams and assign a recorder
• Go to your assigned routes and use the Place
  Audit form to evaluate, observe, and interview
• Return here at the appointed time to discuss your
  findings with your team
• Create a mini-presentation to report back to all
  workshop participants

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The Place Audit
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Place Audit Location 1Speer Wewatta St. /
Chopper Cir.
Aerials
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Place Audit Location 1Speer Wewatta St. /
Chopper Cir.
Land Use/ Zoning
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• Location 1
• Speer Wewatta

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Location 1 Speer Wewatta
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Location 1 Speer Wewatta
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Place Audit Location 2Speer Larimer St. /
Lawrence St.
Aerials
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Place Audit Location 2Speer Larimer St. /
Lawrence St.
Land Use/ Zoning
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Location 2 Speer Lawrence/Larimer
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Location 2 Speer Lawrence/Larimer
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Location 2 Speer Lawrence/Larimer
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Place Audit Location 314th Lawrence or
Arapahoe
Aerials
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Place Audit Location 3 414th Lawrence and
15th and Tremont
Land Use/ Zoning
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Location 3 14th Lawrence
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Location 3 14th Lawrence
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Place Audit Location 415th Tremont
Aerials
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Location 4 15th Tremont
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Location 4 15th Tremont
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Place Audit Location 5Colfax Osage at Auraria
Aerials
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Place Audit Location 5Colfax Osage at Auraria
Land Use/ Zoning
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Location 5 Colfax Osage Auraria
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Location 5 Colfax Osage Auraria
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Location 5 Colfax Osage Auraria